Vaucluse Dreamer

It would be fair to say that 2025 has been a bit of a ‘hurry up and wait’ year.

We have so much planned, but in many ways it feels as if it has really only just started. After our wonderful trip to Venice and Nice in the depths of winter, we have spent the last few months just enjoying the days and looking forward to what is to come.

Now though, we are now hurtling full speed into a mad few weeks and months, which will see us doing a long bike ride back through France from Devon, before spending 6 weeks exploring Japan in a camper van. Before all that, we have a summer full of events to do first.

All of a sudden, the weeks are starting to fly by, as we start a period of time with so much going on that I have had to create a spreadsheet for our plans. Well, not exactly a spreadsheet (in computer terms), more like sheets of paper filled with times, dates, arrows, notes, scribbles and a few doodles too. But that, alongside the maps, which are covered with routes, ideas and destinations has been our constant companion over the last few months, as our plans have come together.

Of course, we always expect a few glitches and the first happened this week. By now, we should have been home in France, starting to get everything we need into piles, before we drive back to the UK (with Pusscat) in just under 2 weeks time, after spending the day watching Le Tour on Mont Ventoux. Unfortunately, our planned return was turned on its head by the huge wildfire that closed Marseille airport, a couple of days ago.

We had a lovely day of travelling slowly to Bristol for the evening flight, taking the bus from the village to sit with a coffee, by the sea in Exmouth.

Then a train to Bristol, where we walked up into the park for a late lunch, before catching the bus to the airport. We found a quiet spot, waiting for 2 hours, only to be told when we arrived at the gate that the flight was being cancelled. Not ideal, but these things happen and we managed to hop back on a bus, straight back to Exeter and rebook flights for today.

So, as I write this, we’re travelling again, this time on a train to Gatwick to catch the evening flight back. The fire has (as I type) been dealt with and everything is open again, so all being well and keeping everything very firmly crossed, we will be home in our own bed tonight.

It’s been a frustrating additional couple of days back in Devon, as we have got so much to do when we get home, and any delays add a bit of pressure. But these things happen, and with Provence tinder-dry and a vicious Mistral, any small fires escalate very quickly.

There are benefits though, and we are now on the train that we will take with our bikes, on the first stage of our trip back through France. So it’s given us a chance to check out where we will put the bikes for the trip to Salisbury, before heading down to Southampton and cycling on from there to Portsmouth, where we’ll catch the night-ferry to Saint Malo.

It has felt in the distant future for so long, but is now less than 6 weeks away and I know it will be here in no time at all. And this morning, the adventure has possibly taken another twist, as the fixture list for next season’s rugby has been announced.

We love watching rugby and are season tickets holders at Provence, so this has always been in the back of our minds. In fact, it was another part of the spreadsheet too. I had written a table of the last 3 ProD2 Rugby seasons, in an effort to establish if there was a pattern.

We always hoped that perhaps Provence Rugby’s first match would be away to a team in the west of France, where we could possibly cycle to watch it. In the last few minutes the calendar has been published and Provence will be playing their first match away at Angouleme, which happens to be not far from the route we’d been looking at.

So all of a sudden, we can really start plotting to see if we can get there, and at a first glance we think we can and then carry on by bike to arrive at Aix for the first home match too! Are we mad? Probably, but our gut feeling is that if we can make it happen, we really should.

We had always planned for the route to take us down through some of our favourite parts of the Vendée and Charente Maritime areas. We spent many holidays there with the boys and have a real soft spot for it, with La Rochelle being one of our favourite cities.

In my mind, I had only planned the route as far as Rochefort, as I had always hoped there may be a match that we could get to, so now I feel I can really plough on and look for a way to get us to Angouleme in time to shout ‘Allez Les Noirs’ from the away corner of the stadium.

It will also give us the chance to explore the town, which is one that we’ve always driven around, (often overly stressed with a caravan on the back) and have never explored. Yet it is a pretty, small city  on the Charente river and home to an open air gallery of murals, as a result of it hosting the International Comic Book Festival, so would be a great place to spend the night, before continuing on our way towards Aix.

In fact, the last time we were there was when we arrived by taxi, to collect a hire car after Fifi’s brand new clutch went up in smoke, when we drove her down 5 years ago. Perhaps this time, we can visit and leave with a better memory.

What I realise is that our lives are always very fluid. We make plans and the plans change and shift like sands, but there is nothing wrong with that. It’s chaotic and exciting, with a huge dose of frustration thrown in for good measure, but it is fun too.

When we get back (hopefully later tonight), we’ll start the process of getting everything together, in what will be a frantic couple of weeks, before loading the car and starting the whistle-stop last few months of the year. Of course, whilst we’re back we have the normalities of life to deal with too, whilst fitting in as much cycling as we can, just to make sure we are fit enough for the ride.

Oh, and we will have to borrow someone’s garden, where we can put up the tent we’ll be carrying, just to make sure we know what to do with it. Our idea of having a couple of nights away just to test everything out has well and truly been binned now, so we’ll just make sure it goes up and treat it all as another part of what is becoming an even more exciting adventure

Two weeks from today, we’ll be back in East Devon, ready for another 6 days of events, with everything we need for a cycle trip back down and 6 weeks of cycling and walking in Japan too.

It’s certainly going to be busy, and I have a feeling that my spreadsheet (or collection of paper, doodles and squiggles) is only going to get bigger, as the actual reality of what we need to get done hits home.

Doesn’t time fly, when you’re having fun!